Profile: A long thin seat stretched up the western side of Hertfordshire, the southern part of the seat around Rickmansworth and Chorleywood is solid London suburbia, with more rural areas in the Chilterns area of outstanding natural beauty around Tring. South Oxhey is a GLC overspill council estate, but the rest of the constituency is solidly middle-class commuter land. The seat also contains the prominent public school the Merchant Taylors` School, HMP the Mount and the military headquarters facility at Northwood Headquarters.

Politics: A safe Conservative seat, held by the party since its creation in 1950.

Current MP

DAVID GAUKE (Conservative) Born 1971, Ipswich. Educated at Northgate High School and Oxford University. Former solicitor. Contested Brent East 2001. First elected as MP for Hertfordshire South West in 2005. Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury 2010-2014. Financial Secretary to the Treasury since 2014.

The Lib Dems seem to be hard to shift in the Three Rivers District.
They held it in 1988, as their opinion poll ratings fell (after the botched merger of the “Alliance”).
Similarly, they have held it after 2010 despite poor opinion poll ratings and local elections overall.
I think they’ve held it continiously for many years.

Not sure why this is, because I think most of the County Council seats are Conservative in 2013.

I think Three Rivers must have been created in 1973.
There used to be a Rickmansworth district council.

Labour did very well in this seat in 1992 to 2005 really. They must have had a fair scattering of votes in areas like Berkhamsted and Tring perhaps aswell.

As Pete has pointed out on the old site, South Oxhey is almost completely different to all these areas.

Of course much of the district is joined on to Watford in urban terms & it’s the Croxley & Rickmansworth wards which are the LDs’ best in the district I think. A shame for the LDs that the areas included in the Watford parliamentary seat are a bit less good for them than that.

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